For the weapon system in question, it is generally the case that it will include a programming member of a known type which, on command, generates electric programming signals which are to be passed onto the shells. Since the programming member, and the type of programming signals which it generates are of a type known, these features will not be described more closely.
The invention instead relates to how the weapon system is to be designed so that it will be possible to supply the electric programming signals to the electronic fuse function of the shells while the shells are located in the cartridge chamber of the weapon inside the barrel where they are surrounded by electrically conductive and, in the great majority of cases, magnetic material. For effectiveness, it is desirable to program fuses as late as possible which means that this should be done immediately before, or in conjunction with firing.
Programming the fuse of the shells inside the cartridge chamber is therefore, in theory, the best place if possibility of doing this after the shell has left the barrel and is on its way towards the target is discounted. EP-A-0300255 and EP-A-0467055 describe how programming can be carried out with the aid of electromagnetic coils arranged immediately outside the mouth of the barrel. For various reasons, these solutions have proved to be more difficult to implement in practice than was originally theoretically assumed. Then, as far as programming further away from the firing point is concerned, along the actual missile trajectory, this involves such great technical complications that, although they are by no means insurmountable, they would probably only be justified in terms of effectiveness in larger calibers such as 10.5 cm and above.
In addition to the alternatives indicated above of programming the shells when they are on the way towards the target, or in the cartridge chamber of the weapon, the current most common method of programming the shells is programming before the shell is supplied to the weapon and also the procedure which is used in certain automatic pieces in which the shell is programmed at the same time as it is transferred from the magazine of the weapon to the cartridge chamber of the weapon.
None of these methods is suitable in weapons which may stand with a shell in the cartridge chamber for long periods without firing. The only alternative remaining then is actually to program the fuse of the shell in the cartridge chamber of the weapon or immediately outside thereof. In theory, both these procedures also represent good opportunities for programming the detonation range for the shells of the relative shots in a volley.